Cake Serving Calculator

This cake serving calculator will help you to estimate how much cake you need for your party. Choose the cake shape, number of guests, and we'll suggest how big the cake should be (you can even alter the slice size).

Round cake sizes and sheet cake sizes may vary a bit between different confectioners, but in the sections below, you'll find some popular dimensions, as well as an exemplary wedding cake serving chart. Also, if you're racking your brain on how many people does a sheet cake feed, or you're simply wondering what's the half-sheet cake size, we've got you covered — keep scrolling, and you'll find the answer.

That's a hard question, as there are as many preferences as there are people. As you can imagine, it depends on many different factors, but we'll list the three most important ones here:

• Slice size (understood as the area of a slice, looking from above) — do you want the cake to be a little teaser (e.g., one from many desserts during the wedding), is it going to be a birthday cake, or are you going to give out big party slices, after which your guests would refuse to eat anything more? Before ordering, think about how you'd like to serve it and how big the slices should be. If you're planning to bake it yourself, our cooking measurement converter may be of interest to you.

• Cake type — as you can imagine, cake type may determine the size of a slice as well. Usually, the serving portion varies a lot with preferences, but flat brownies, wedding cakes, sponge cakes or meringues can all be cut differently. You may want smaller serving sizes if the cake is really sweet or has loads of custard, while larger portions may be more appropriate for light fruit cakes.

• Cake height — if your cake is rather flat — for example a tart or a brownie — we guess that your serving size will be bigger than that for a 4" high wedding cake, right?

Generally, there's only one dimension you need to know to order the cake — for round cake sizes, the number specified in inches is the diameter of the cake; for square cakes — it's simply the square side. Have a look at this wedding cake serving chart — assuming that you're choosing a serving size of 2 in² times cake height, each cake can feed the following number of people:

Of course, if you prefer smaller slices, you can feed more guests, and for greater sizes — less. Remember, it's an estimation only, as it's not possible to cut the cake into slices of the exact same size (within a normal amount of time and without a ruler).

Bearing in mind the rules from the paragraph above, we can try to assess the size of a cake needed for a wedding. Not a huge one, though — let's say it's a wedding for 100–110 people. So, let's try to use this cake serving calculator!

1. Enter the number of guests. Let's start with 100 guests.

2. Choose the cake shape. Suppose you prefer a traditional round cake.

3. There we go! The tool will suggest the cake size needed, dependent on the slice size. For small slices of 2 in², we need to buy a 16" cake (~41 cm). The round cake size — in inches or centimeters — is the diameter of a round cake.

Let's play with the tool even more!

4. Assume that there is some margin for error, so enter 110 guests this time. The cake serving calculator now suggests a two tier cake instead: with tiers 11" and 13" in diameter.
5. Also, by selecting the checkbox, you can even choose the slice size or change the difference in inches between the tiers. Awesome!

In our cake serving calculator, the smaller the number of guests, the more accurate the calculation should be, as it's much easier to cut a small cake into even slices. When you're cutting one hundred slices of cake, it should be assumed that they're not going to be all even slices, so some people may be left without any cake. We therefore suggest the size of two layers of tier-cake, with the top layer diameter shorter by 2-3 inches from the bottom layer. Consult your confectioner and check their cake size selection.

Are you planning a wedding? We'd strongly recommend having a look at our wedding alcohol calculator. Also, check out the handy ring size calculator when hunting for the perfect wedding or engagement ring for your partner.

Let's start from the beginning: what's the size of a sheet cake? Well, there are two commonly used sizes:

• 26 in × 18 in × 2 in height; or
• 24 in × 18 in × 2 in height

If we're talking about half-sheet cake sizes, their dimensions are:

• 18 in × 13 in × 2 in height; or
• 18 in × 12 in × 2 in height

And, for quarter sheets, we can easily find out their sizes by dividing the length of a half-sheet cake by 2:

• 13 in × 9 in × 2 in height; or
• 12 in × 9 in × 2 in height

Of course, as the name suggests, the full sheet is equivalent to two halves and four quarters:

How many people does a sheet cake feed? Again, depending on the slice size, cake type, and height, you can estimate it by calculating the cake area (which is the area of a rectangle) and dividing that value by the slice area. For example:

1. Assume you have a full sheet cake, 26 in × 18 in. Then, calculate its area by multiplying its length by its width — 26 in × 18 in = 468 in².
2. Choose the serving size. For example, we aim at 2 in × 2 in portions, so 4 in².
3. Divide the area by the serving size— it's 468 / 4 in our case. We calculated that that cake should feed 117 people, great!

Also, you can use our cake serving calculator — we'll give you a prompt that you can buy a quarter, half or full sheet cake, depending on the number of guests and the serving size.